Archive for the ‘UK Web Hosting’ Category

Managed hosting refers to the service offered to those who have purchased a dedicated server. When you purchase your server, you can either choose to simply purchase the hardware and then configure and support the server yourself. Or you can choose to have most aspects of your server managed by an expert team.
The main services provided by managed hosting companies include: technical support, server monitoring and optimization, 24/7 Live Chat, management services and risk assessments, data back up and disaster recovery services, managed firewall and content delivery services.

Server monitoring

Most Managed hosting providers monitor the servers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. This significantly increases the uptime percentage for websites. If there are any ongoing issues with the server, the technicians will warn the client about the server problems and advise on how best they can be resolved. Common server issues include server load and weak network connectivity.

Software installations and server updates

Managed hosting usually provides free software installations to the server. When the new updates are available for the server, the managed hosting team will update the server for the client. Should the client purchase backup utility software for their server, they don’t need to worry about installing it, as the managed web hosting team will usually complete the installation free of charge.

Peace of mind

The main benefit of managed hosting is peace of mind for the owner of the server. With managed hosting the client doesn’t need to worry about a hardware failure in the middle of night as should it occur, the managed hosting server team will immediately be on hand to resolve the issue and retrieve any data which may have been lost.
To re-iterate, the main benefits of managed hosting are:

With managed hosting, clients know that their server is in the hands of experts

Managed hosting involves the monitoring of servers 24 x 7 and 7 days a week, 365 days of the year. Taking the worry out of server management and leaving you free to concentrate on growing your business

Web hosting packages, also known as web hosting plans in some situations, are what all web hosting accounts and server hosting services are based around as each plan defines the resources and features that you will have available as well as how much you will be paying. Web hosting companies offer a wide variety of web hosting packages based around different principles with some being designed for and aimed at home users whilst other web hosting packages are tailored to fit the needs of business users whose web presence will be of high value to them. When purchasing a web hosting package you can usually adapt specific features and resources to suit your needs, and some web hosting companies even allow you to develop a web hosting plan that is based entirely around your needs. If you are looking at starting your own web hosting business through the means of a reseller web hosting service or a VPS server then you will be able to develop your own web hosting packages that you can then sell on to your own web hosting clients; this will give you complete freedom meaning that you can look at what you have to work with and develop web hosting plans that will be highly profitable from there.

Features of a Web Hosting Package

The features that are available with your chosen web hosting package will depend on your chosen operating system as well as the form of web hosting that you have decided will suffice for your requirements. Any web hosting service will come with support for email accounts meaning that you can easily setup email accounts under any of the domain names that you wish to host. FTP accounts are also a standard feature of any web hosting package since you need to be able to upload files and your website to your web space using one method or another; this can be done through other means though if you are using a VPS server or dedicated server. The way in which you manage your web hosting package is another consideration that most web hosting companies have made and in most situations you will be offered some kind of web hosting control panel with your web hosting package, although the control panel provided will vary between operating systems and web hosting services.

Resources

All web hosting packages come with resource assignments, normally based on the type of web hosting that you are using as well as how much you are paying. The main resources to accompany web hosting packages include:

Disk space – the amount of disk space that you have available to use will dictate how much content you are able to store in your web space and this can manifest itself as images, web pages or any other file type – what most people fail to consider is that the size of your databases will also count towards your overall disk space usage meaning that you should always be monitoring your databases as well as your overall disk space usage to ensure that you don’t end up doing over

Bandwidth – this will dictate how many visitors are able to visit your website within a month and the amount of bandwidth used up by a single visitor will depend on a number of factors, although it is something that you can control yourself pretty easily – shared web hosting services usually come with bandwidth assignments that are usable to begin with, but over time your need for more bandwidth will increase as your visitor numbers increase – if you choose to enhance your website using multimedia content then you will further bandwidth since video and audio tend to be quite bandwidth heavy.

The resources available with your chosen web hosting package are going to matter to you as they will dictate when you are next going to upgrade your web hosting package. Once you run out of resources on your existing web hosting package, it is time to upgrade to the next highest form of web hosting meaning that you want your use in resources to scale with the amount of income that you receive from your website so that you are able to fund any possible upgrade.

Forms of Web Hosting Package

There are several different forms of web hosting to choose from, all of which are available as web hosting packages with different features and different resource allocations since all are designed for different purposes. The main forms of web hosting are:

Shared web hosting – as shared hosting packages are always the cheapest on offer, they are the most popular choice for first-timers that wish to play around with web hosting packages before committing to a more powerful form of web hosting that will be capable of offering them a lot more

Reseller web hosting – a reseller web hosting package won’t be able to offer you much more than a shared web hosting package, although if you are looking to create your own web hosting packages that you can then sell on to your own web hosting clients then a reseller web hosting service will be able to provide you with the features and resources necessary to achieve this

VPS server hosting – although you are provided with a dedicated web hosting environment when you purchase a VPS package, you are still going to be sharing the main hosting node with other VPS servers meaning that it isn’t quite fully blown dedicated web hosting even though you will have your own guaranteed resources that you can use however if you wish

Dedicated server hosting – a dedicated server is the only form of physical web hosting available as you will be provided with your own physical server that will be utilizing hardware resources – a dedicated server package is ideal for a business that has a larger web hosting budget since it is the perfect platform to use if you wish to expand your business and internet operations.

The four forms of web hosting are offered by most web hosting companies meaning that there is a wide variety of web hosting packages to choose from regardless of the web hosting company that you choose to look at primarily. For the best result you can always have a look at web hosting reviews websites since the reviews posted on such sites are normally quite informative and will allow you to make a proper decision as to which web hosting package and web hosting company will be able to fulfill your requirements to a satisfactory level.

In conclusion, web hosting packages provide you with a way of establishing a web presence either for yourself or your business as they are offered with the main purpose being the hosting of a website. As you are going to be hosting domain names on your web hosting account, a web hosting package will also be able to provide you with the features required to allow you to make the most of your domain names so that you can setup email accounts to use with your domain so that you can portray a professional image to your clients when communicating with them over the internet.

Ecommerce is an umbrella term that can be applied to a wide variety of activities that take place on the internet. From simple online shops to complex online banking systems, ecommerce plays a part in your everyday life, whether you realize it or not. Ecommerce hosting services are designed to offer the highest level of uptime as they your ecommerce activities are going to be providing your business with income meaning that downtime will mean lost money; similarly, your customers and/or users are likely to be inconvenienced by any large period of downtime. Security will also be high on the agenda with most web hosting companies as the data that is held by ecommerce websites is usually of a sensitive nature and is likely to be targeted by hackers every once in a while; the level of security available with ecommerce hosting will be dependent on the form of web hosting that you choose to use as well as how well your own website has been developed. A viable ecommerce web hosting package is one that will offer you a relatively acceptable amount of disk space to store all of the multimedia items that are going to be empowering your website whilst offering a large assignment of bandwidth so that you can expect a good number of visitors to your website.

As a business, you are likely to want a guarantee over the level of reliability that you will be provided with because you are going to be relying on your ecommerce website as a source of income in one way or another meaning that downtime is going to cost you. Considering dedicated web hosting services is a good idea as the isolation that a dedicated web hosting environment can offer you will mean that you won’t have to worry about the actions of others or their website impacting your website or web hosting experience. Depending on how important your website is, choosing a web hosting provider that can offer you an SLA (Service Level Agreement) is recommended as this means you have a benchmark that once crossed will mean that you will receive compensation for any downtime caused; as SLAs usually guarantee high levels of uptime, it is a good practice to follow.

Ecommerce websites, whatever the type, are usually busy in terms of traffic. If you are running an online shop then the chances are that you will be receiving a large number of daily visitors who are then becoming customers through the purchase of your products. In order to cope with large volumes of traffic you will want to be considering a web hosting package that can provide you with a good assignment of bandwidth. The amount of bandwidth that you have available to you will dictate how many visitors you can have to your website, although the file size of your downloaded web pages will also count towards this. If you are the webmaster of a growing website then considering a web hosting service that can offer you more bandwidth than you actually require would be a good idea since this will provide you with extra room in case there are a couple of extra days in a month where you experience a spike in visitor numbers (usually the result of increased advertising).

Your customers will want security. Ecommerce activities normally include the handling of personal data to some extent meaning that is highly important for you to choose a web hosting service that will be able to guarantee the security of the data that you are going to be hosting. For the highest level of security it is recommended that you store certain data in a password protected database; furthermore you should encrypt this data as it will prevent it from being of any use to any hackers that may attempt to compromise your web hosting account and/or databases. If you are going to be accepting credit cards or banking information on your website then an even higher level of security is advised – for the confidence of your visitors you may wish to invest in a VPS server or dedicated server. In any case where personal data is being collected, it is of the utmost importance that basic security measures are followed such as the use of SSL certificates.

When considering the size of your website, a larger scale multi-server may be more appropriate if you are looking to achieve 100% uptime whilst maintaining a setup that will also be capable of coping with high load spikes. Specialist e-commerce web hosting companies will be able to tailor solutions specifically to your requirements which can be of benefit to you if you wish to focus on the running of your business; if you have your own IT staff then again this will be useful as it means that you have the man power in place to monitor your server and hosting setup without having to pay extra. Clustered server hosting may be the answer to your requirements if you are looking to achieve high uptime as the number of servers available to you will mean that even if one of them fails, there will be at least one other server available to take up the role of the server that is experiencing downtime. This load balanced idea is highly effective as it will allow you to focus on other activities without having to worry and will mean that your IT staff can repair the crashed server without affecting performance.

In conclusion, ecommerce web hosting service need to be considered carefully as usually it is not just yourself that you need to consider, but also your customers and visitors – especially if you are going to be handling and storing their personal information. Whether you choose to use a shared web hosting service or dedicated web hosting service for your ecommerce hosting needs, you should still consider the same aspects of security and uptime as well as value for money so that you can be sure that your requirements are being met and that you aren’t being ripped off.

UK web hosting is a highly popular form of web hosting for companies and individuals based in the UK and Europe as well as businesses all over the world that wish to host websites that are aimed specifically at a UK market. UK web hosting services can bring many benefits to businesses and individuals hosting websites that they want to target specifically at UK audiences; such benefits can include increased rankings in UK search engine listings and faster loading speeds for those who visit your website or try to download content from your website within the UK. Although UK web hosting services can be slightly more expensive than web hosting services that are hosted in other locations such as the USA, in most situations you will find that the increased cost is worth and that the benefits will soon outweigh the cost. On the other hand UK web hosting services can be cheaper for those that are based in the UK as it means that the price that you are going to be paying for your web hosting services isn’t affected by exchange rates as would be the case if you were to purchase your web hosting services from a foreign web hosting provider.

The main advantage to using UK web hosting service is the fact that search engines will rank your website higher for UK search engine listings meaning that your website will appear higher in keyword listings that are related to your website. If you are aiming your website at a UK audience then this will be of benefit to you since it means that you will receive a greater number of visitors to your website that are thoroughly interested in your content which in turn will mean that they are more likely to return to your website in the future – they are also more likely to recommend your website to others that may be after something similar.

The second benefit of using UK web hosting services is the fact that your website will load faster for your visitors since the servers hosting your website will be geographically closer to your visitors meaning that the response time between the client computer and the server will be greatly reduced. When hosting further away the response time between client computers and servers is going to be increased because the data has to travel further, whereas if you were to host in the UK then data won’t have to travel so far in turn meaning that your website will load faster for your UK visitors.

UK web hosting services are only usually offered by UK web hosting providers which can provide you with additional benefits as it means that you should be able to expect a high level of customer service from your chosen web hosting company. Regardless of whether you are an individual or a business, you should want to use a web hosting provider that can provide you with a good level of customer service as it will make life easier for you if you ever need to contact them regarding any issues that you may be having with your UK web hosting service.

UK web hosting providers will also be able to provide you with a greater level of reliability for your web hosting service and customer service is usually a good measure of how reliable you can expect your UK based web hosting package to be. You want to be sure that your website will always be accessible to your visitors without you having to be constantly checking it and so choosing a highly reliable web hosting company and web hosting package is important. If your web hosting company isn’t able to meet the uptime guarantee that they have promised you then you aren’t going to be receiving good value for money.

The price of a web hosting package is also something that you are likely to consider because you don’t want to be overpaying when you can get a web hosting service of a similar specification for a much lower price from another UK web hosting provider. As a potential web hosting customer based in the UK, purchasing your required services from a UK web hosting provider will be a better option for you as the prices that you are going to pay overall will be much lower than what you would pay for a web hosting service from a US web hosting provider. As you will be purchasing a web hosting package in GBP, you aren’t going to be affected by exchange rates as would be the case if you were to purchase a web hosting package that was priced in USD.

When choosing a UK web hosting service you may also be given a chance to choose where in the UK your website is hosted as some web hosting providers choose to utilize several different data centres for their UK web hosting operations. This can be of benefit to you if you are looking to setup a server cluster in the UK that has fail-over protection as by using servers located in several different data centres you can be sure that even if one of your servers fails, there will be at least one other server available to take up the role of the server that has crashed ensuring that there is no slack.

In conclusion, UK web hosting can be very beneficial to businesses and individuals that are based in the UK and you should consider UK web hosting if you are currently using US web hosting services whilst trying to target a UK based audience. UK web hosting providers are able to offer a wide variety of UK hosted web hosting services ranging from shared web hosting to dedicated server hosting. You will also be offered the same choice of operating systems meaning that you can choose from either Windows or any Linux distribution of your choice. When choosing UK web hosting you may be put off the prices of some UK web hosting services at first, but once you realise the benefits that are available you will see that the cost is easily justified.

Web hosting is the perfect step to take if you wish to establish an online identity for your business and this will provide you with great benefits as it will offer you the chance to engage with a much wider audience and will also provide you with a platform that will allow you to offer your products and services to a greater number of people. A web hosting service will also provide you with services that will allow you to communicate with your customers and others in a variety of different ways; a good example of this would be email as if you have a domain name fixed up to your web hosting account, you will be able to use your web hosting account to setup email accounts that you can then use under your chosen domain name. Similarly you can also add contact forms and other features to your website that will then allow others to contact you using your web hosting account. A cheap web hosting package is probably going to be the most beneficial for you if you are using web hosting for the first time as it means that you won’t be risking too much if you find that your business’s web presence isn’t really working or that you require a higher end form of web hosting for your requirements.

If you are looking at extending your target audience then setting up a website on the internet is a good starting move since billions of people all over the world use the internet and any of these users will be able to access your website, thus meaning that you have a worldwide audience available at your fingertips. If you are selling products then you are going to be limited by physical factors such as where you will be able to ship your products to, but on the other hand if you are selling virtual services such as web hosting then there are no limits on who you will be able to sell your services to as you won’t have any physical factors affecting your delivery of the product. Furthermore the existence of your website will provide you with a destination that you can point any customers that you may have on a day to day basis to; in turn they will then be able to pass your website’s address on to anyone else that they feel could benefit from the goods or services that you sell.

Once you have uploaded your website and established it under your new web hosting account you can then proceed to start with the advertising of your new website using various services such as Google Adwords and other CPC (Cost Per Click) advertising programs. The main benefit of web hosting here is that you can choose your hosting location to help benefit your SEO efforts that you may carry out as these generally influence the effectiveness of most CPC programs. UK web hosting is recommended for UK based businesses and individuals that wish to target UK search engine listings; if you are on a lower budget and are looking to target a more international audience then US web hosting services will meet your requirements.

You will be able to choose between the Windows and Linux web hosting platforms depending on what your specific requirements are and this will benefit you if you are looking to develop using platform-specific code such as classic ASP or ASP.NET, two languages that are only compatible with Windows based web hosting servers. If you have chosen to develop your website using open source solutions such as PHP or Ruby then both Linux and Windows web hosting packages should be able to provide you with support for these.

Any web hosting service will allow you to setup email accounts for any domain names that you want to host under your web hosting account, thus allowing you to communicate with others from your domain name – this will help you to portray a professional image to your customers and those who you are communicating with via email. Access via POP3 and IMAP is a standard feature these days and similarly, you will be provided with access to a webmail interface for any of the email accounts that you setup.

In conclusion, web hosting is able to provide many advantages to businesses that are yet to establish themselves online. There is a wide variety of web hosting services available depending on what your requirements are exactly; if you are after a low cost web hosting service that will provide you with the bare basics to help you get started then a shared web hosting package will more than suffice for your requirements. VPS server hosting services and dedicated servers are aimed at higher end users that have a distinct need for power from their web hosting service.

Related Posts:

A web server is the service application that is called upon to serve web pages to client computers that request them from a server. Typically a web server will run on server port 80, as this is the default port used by the HTTP protocol (hypertext transfer protocol). Web servers are available for Linux servers and Windows servers and most have been designed for general use meaning that they can be used for the serving of a wide variety of file types. Web servers are the main part of any web hosting package because they are what will serve the web pages and any other files that may be request over HTTP; without a web server, a web hosting package is essentially unusable.

When using a Linux server your first choice of web server will more than likely be Apache as this is an open source application that can be installed on any Linux server within the matter of a minute. If you are going to be using Windows server hosting then you may prefer to use IIS as this is an integral part of the Windows operating system meaning that it will provide you with a more flexible level of usability, or on the other hand you could always use Apache although the support offered would only be limited. Your choice of web server is something that you should take seriously as different web servers will be able to offer support for different things whilst your choice of platform will of course affect the web server that you choose.

Apache is the world’s most popular web server and has been established for a long time; this has allowed the developers to create a highly secure application that is capable of handling high loads. As Apache is an open source application, the core of it can be modified to suit your requirements on either Windows or Linux; this is ideal for larger businesses that may wish to factor in their own code to help Apache perform better or simply for those who wish to optimize Apache to use less system resources. The fact that Apache can be used on Windows or Linux servers allows developers to create their web applications around the same common base, regardless of the web hosting platform that they finally decide to use for the hosting of any web applications that they choose to develop further.

IIS is Microsoft’s flagship web server meaning that it is an application that will only work with the Windows operating system, as is evident with the fact that it is only available as an optional Windows feature. IIS should only really be considered when looking for a web server capable of support classic ASP or ASP.NET web pages as it is the only web server that will be able to process and serve such web paged and scripts. However, IIS will also support a wide variety of other web scripting languages such as PHP and Perl – other components critical to the running of dynamic websites such as database servers will run fine on Windows servers.

Your choice of web server is something that could affect the security of your server as if you are using a web server application that hasn’t been secured properly then you are leaving your server prone to web based attacks such as script injections and DDOS attacks on the web server port. However, the level to which your web pages and scripts have been coded will also affect how secure your web server is since if you have used poor coding then it will be fairly easy for hackers to compromise these scripts and in turn do damage to your web hosting server.

In conclusion, web server software is the application used to serve web pages to client machines when requested. In order to be able to host a website on a server you will need to have a web server application installed and running on port 80 so that a when a web browser requests a specific file from your server via HTTP, your server is then able to deliver that file to the client computer. Your choice of web server is likely to be dependent on the scripting languages that you are using for your website as well as the operating system platform.

Dedicated hosting services are very popular with larger businesses that require uptime and security due to the sensitive nature of the information that they are going to be storing on their server, and also because their websites generally act as a source of information for a large number of people. There are two main forms of dedicated web hosting available from most web hosting providers – VPS servers and dedicated servers; VPS server hosting services are designed for individuals rather than businesses and are seen to bridge the gap between shared web hosting services and dedicated servers, whereas dedicated servers are targeted at bigger businesses as is evident with the price tag that is attached to most dedicated server hosting services. VPS servers and dedicated servers can provide you with similar advantages, the main difference being that a dedicated server will allow you to make the most of these advantages.

Reliability

Dedicated hosting services will be able to provide you with a high level of reliability that you will be able to your advantage since it will allow you to get on with more important tasks without having to worry about the reliability of your website. The specifications of most VPS servers and dedicated servers allow webmasters to host a number of websites without having to give great consideration to the stability of the hosting server. It is important to choose a dedicated web hosting service that is of the correct specification for your requirements as you don’t want to end up paying for resources that you are never going to use; in most situations you will be able to benefit from the configuration options offered by most web hosting providers since these will allow you to ‘build’ your own VPS server or dedicated server so that you end up with a web hosting service that is specifically tailored to your requirements.

Security

Dedicated hosting services can also be relied upon to offer a secure web hosting environment which is what most businesses require these days if they wish to be able to make the most of their web presence. The dedicated web hosting environment offered by VPS servers and dedicated servers will allow you to customize your web hosting environment so that it suits your needs ideally, thus allowing you to secure your server to an extent that you feel will match the importance of your website when you consider the information that is going to be stored. There are many different security measures that you can take to provide yourself with a more secure web hosting environment, although these will depend on the operating system that you choose to have installed on your VPS server or dedicated server. If you are going to be processing the credit card details and storing the personal information of your visitors then it is going to be important for you to have a highly secure web hosting environment that can’t be infiltrated by hackers; for such a situation a dedicated server would be more appropriate than a VPS server as you will be provided with complete isolation in your own physical hosting environment rather than simply being hosted on a physical server with many other users.

Guaranteed Resources

A VPS server or dedicated server will provide you with your own guaranteed resources that no-one else will be able to make use of. The guaranteed resources offered by dedicated web hosting services will allow you to ensure a high level of reliability, and the isolation provided by having your own guaranteed resources will count towards the higher level of security that can be achieved. Although a dedicated server can offer you the ability to make full use of the resources that you have purchased including your dedicated server’s CPU, VPS server hosting services can be a lot more limited and in most situations you will have to share the hosting node’s CPU with the other VPS servers hosted on that node.

In conclusion, there are several advantages to using dedicated web hosting that you can take away and make the most of as you wish. How effective these advantages are will depend on how well your VPS server or dedicated server is managed as well as its specifications and what it is used for.

A Windows web hosting service or Linux web hosting service will be able to provide you with the facility to use an SSL certificate that can then be used to ensure that all data transferred between your website and your visitor’s computers is secure. SSL stands for ‘secure socket layer’ and adds an additional layer of security to your website as it allows you to ensure that all of the data transferred between the server that your website is hosted on and your visitor’s computers is encrypted, this means that if any hackers or malicious attackers try to eavesdrop on the information as it is being transferred, they won’t be able to do anything with it as it will be unreadable. It is important to take into consideration that you will need a dedicated IP address if you wish to use an SSL certificate,; this will need to be purchased as an additional extra with a shared web hosting service but will be provided for free with a VPS server or dedicated server.

What are the advantages of using SSL web hosting?

Using an SSL certificate with your web hosting package and website will provide you with many advantages in terms of security as it will allow you to expand the possibilities of what you are able to use your website for. Such advantages may include:

Secure web hosting – although an SSL certificate isn’t directly related to the security of the server that your website is hosted on, it will still aid you in developing a secure web hosting environment as it means that you can be sure that the data transferred out of your website is encrypted – as long as your web hosting package will provide you with a dedicated IP address then you will be able to use an SSL certificate with your website

Visitor confidence – most SSL certificate issuers will provide you with a ‘seal’ that you can display on your website, and on top of this most web browsers will make something of the fact that your website is using an SSL certificate – both of these factors will increase the confidence that your visitor’s have in your website meaning that if your website is an online shop or you are using it to collect personal information then your visitors are more likely to input confidential information such as their name and address or even their credit card information

Varying costs – the cost of setting up your website to use an SSL certificate can vary depending on several different factors including the strength of the certificate that you are using – this can be beneficial in most cases since it means that you will be able to setup your website to use an SSL certificate for a relatively low amount of money if you choose to go for one of the less stronger SSL certificates – however, if you are a larger business then this could cost you more as it will mean you are going to need a stronger SSL certificate if you are going to be handling particularly sensitive information.

An SSL certificate will be able to provide you with a more secure web hosting environment but will also allow you to show to your visitors that you take the security of your website seriously and that you care about the safety of the data that they’re entering into your website.

What are the disadvantages of using SSL web hosting?

There can also be disadvantages to using an SSL certificate that you should be aware of if you wish to create a reliable and usable secure web hosting environment. The disadvantages that you could face may include:

Extra costs – as well as the cost of the SSL certificate that you are going to be using, you will also need to consider the cost of a dedicated IP address to you as well as the administration costs that may be involved with the installation of an SSL certificate – some web hosting providers will charge you for the installation of a dedicated SSL certificate although if you buy one directly from them then this cost may be waived, but nearly every web hosting company around will charge you a small monthly fee in order to have a dedicated IP address fixed to your web hosting account

Need for dedicated IP address – the need for a dedicated IP address in order to be able to use an SSL certificate can be off-putting for some since it is an added cost and generally means that you have to update your DNS servers before you can make use of the SSL certificate thus increasing the deployment time – this can also add to the cost of deployment an SSL certificate.

In conclusion, SSL web hosting can benefit both you and your visitors since a secure web hosting environment will provide you with peace of mind whilst the use of an SSL certificate will provide your visitors with a higher sense of security and trust with you and your website.

Just think about the folders or files you have made on the desktop of your computer system. These are stored on the hard disk or desktop and you can access them anytime you desire. Similarly, a web page is actually a file like a Word document. As well as Word documents, web pages also need a storage system. A system on which web pages are stored is known as a web server and collectively these pages make up a website.

The task of developing sites and making all pages available to internet audiences is usually known as Web Hosting. The space on the web is measured in MB (megabytes), in precisely the same manner as the space on desktop personal computer is measured.

Why do you need web hosting?

Talking technically, it is easy to connect a PC to the internet and load pages. However, it is not realistic since in general home based links are not powerful enough to facilitate many customers at the same time. Here comes the duty of web hosting companies. They basically have and preserve powerful web servers that house these websites. These also connect the web-servers to World Wide Web by powerful internet connections, allowing several web customers to get easy access to pages at any time. In short, you need a web hosting organization to house your website and ensure its availability on the internet.

What else do web hosting firms?

Along with enough web space, UK web hosting firms invariably render numerous other value added options that vary from a firm to firm. Some of the main services rendered by almost all companies include registering domain names, e-mail services and providing technical support through Live Chat or via telephone or e-mail.

Different types of UK web hosting

There are several different types of web hosting, fabricated to work well for the differing needs of customers. A small two-page site developed will need a smaller web hosting service than a high traffic multinational website established bank. There are major differentiating factors upon which you should select a web hosting firm and package. These are the number of e-mail accounts you will receive, the amount of web space you need, data transfer, bandwidth overage and operating system (Linux or Windows).

What assortment of web hosting do you need?

The web hosting service one selects will be based on what the type and requirements of your internet business. For smaller firms or individuals, there are different hosting packages made available that provide countless e-mail accounts and enough web space and bandwidth. If one expects one’s website to be visited by a large volume of visitors, then one should opt for a web hosting package that offers great components and hosting features with more than sufficient web space.

Common pitfalls

With purchasing any web hosting package, there are many potential pitfalls that one should remain aware of. The only way to avoid choosing the wrong web hosting company is to really understand what your website is trying to achieve, the features you need from a web host to enable your site to achieve its goals and to establish the level of support you will require. You should then carryout in depth research into a number of Web Hosting organizations, ensuring that you validate them against your requirements. Only then can you be certain that you have chosen the right web host for your online enterprise.

Summary

As a beginner, you have to be extra cautious in your endeavors to get a good deal on hosting packages as there are many badly run web hosting firms bringing the hosting world into disrepute. So, be aware, do your research!

Domain name registration is a supplementary service offered by many web hosting providers to accompany their web hosting services so that their customers are able to locate all of their web hosting related products with one service provider. Domain names normally take the form of the main name and then a TLD (either a global TLD or a country specific TLD) – TLD stands for ‘Top Level Domain‘; i.e. with the example of ‘domain.com’, the name would be ‘domain’ and the gTLD would be ‘.com’. Some web hosting providers are limited as to the TLDs they are able to offer to customers who wish to register domain names which is why there is still a market for independent domain name registrars. As a web hosting customer you will be able to make the most of the domain name registration services offered by most web hosting providers as a majority of web hosting companies are able to offer free domain names with specific web hosting services that they sell.

How can using a domain name benefit me?

Using a domain name will allow you to make the most of the web hosting service that you have purchased from your web hosting provider. A domain name will allow you to unlock the following common features of most web hosting services:

Email accounts – email accounts can be setup using any form of web hosting available but in order for email to work you will need to have a domain name available for use – a domain name can be hooked up to any web hosting service that supports email accounts allowing you to then create email addresses ending with ‘@domain.com’, with ‘domain.com’ being your domain name – it is a good idea to note that if you have no web hosting service to use then most domain name registrars will provide you with free email forwarding services

Website – a domain name will provide you with an easy to remember address that you can then pass on to customers and those who are interested in viewing your website – although you will require a web hosting package if you wish to display a website under your domain name, it does mean that as a business you can exploit this new opportunity to the maximum which will allow you to make more money if for example you choose to put an online store up under your domain name

Corporate identity – a domain name will help you with the branding of your business if you are going to be using it for business purposes since it provides you with another point of contact for your customers – it is important for you to make sure that the domain name you choose fits in well with the name of your business if you wish to promote your business online using the domain name that you have purchased, and people will also have a better chance of finding you through search engines if you use your business name as part of your domain name.

Domain names can be registered quite cheaply meaning that as a business there is no reason why you shouldn’t invest in registering a domain name.

What is the domain registration process?

The process to register a domain name is fairly simple and it doesn’t matter which domain registrar or web hosting provider you choose to use since the process will be the same anywhere. It is important to take the following points into consideration when registering a domain name:

Registration period – all domains are registered for a set amount of time and the price that you pay for a domain name will depend on how long you register it for – most gTLD domains are registered for one year minimum although certain ccTLD domains such as those ending with ‘.uk’ have to be registered for a minimum of two years – after that time you will need to pay to renew your domain name

Copyright and trademarks – if your domain name includes a trademarked name that you don’t own then you may be requested to handover the domain name concerned to the owner of the trademark – registering a domain name that contains a trademarked could be seen by some as copyright infringement.

In conclusion, domain names can provide businesses with another way of promoting themselves via the internet but can also allow individuals to setup their own web pages. Domain name registration is a service provided by many web hosting providers but since a majority will be using the same underlying resellers it is unlikely that prices are going to vary greatly between hosting providers.